 |
Picks is a monthly sampling of Japan's art scene, offering short reviews of 20 exhibitions at museums and galleries throughout Japan over the past two or three months, with an emphasis on contemporary art by young artists. |
|
|
 |
|
| Grayson Perry: My Civilisation |
| 28 April - 31 August 2007 |
21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa
(Ishikawa) |
|
| Born in Chelmsford, England in 1960, renowned contemporary artist Perry currently lives in London. Since the mid-1980s he has focused on ceramics, but his work spans many genres, from printmaking and photography to dress design. Winner of the Turner Prize in 2003, this is his first solo exhibition in Japan. |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
| Untitled/Ayako Kurihara 2007 |
| 29 June - 30 July 2007 |
Gallery Maki
(Tokyo) |
|
| This solo exhibition features large collages that consist of hundreds of contact-sized photos shot by Kurihara over the past ten years with a 35-mm half-size camera. The tiny prints, mostly outdoor images, are arranged in order of their taking. |
|
 |
| Fuyuji: flesh cluster |
| 7 - 19 August 2007 |
Neutron
(Kyoto) |
|
| His acrylic paintings distinguished by their twisting, flowing colors, Fuyuji draws inspiration from the human body and its components -- muscle, bone, fat. This show includes a huge, five-meter-long painting consisting of three size-130 canvases. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Hiroshi Teshigahara: Traces of Endless Border Crossings |
| 14 July - 8 October 2007 |
Museum of Modern Art, Saitama
(Saitama) |
|
| Teshigahara (1927-2001) was a renaissance man: a filmmaker, potter, calligrapher, and an installation artist who liked to work with bamboo. After studying oil painting he went into film, winning the Special Jury Prize at Cannes for his 1964 masterpiece Woman in the Dunes. Son of the founder of the Sogetsu school of ikebana, he succeeded his father as head of the school in 1980. This retrospective features Teshigahara's work in all these genres. |
|
|
|
|
|
| Hiroko Okada: Love and Hate Lunch Box |
| 18 July - 11 August 2007 |
Mizuma Art Gallery
(Tokyo) |
|
| A new work by Okada, "Love and Hate" represents the complex emotions of a mother toward her child. Okada stages an imaginary American cable TV show on which a Japanese cuisine specialist (played by Okada) introduces Japanese box lunch recipes that exude these mixed feelings. The exhibition includes a video of the show and drawings of the bizarre recipes designed by Okada. |
|
|
| Art in Dojima Osaka 2007 |
| 20 - 22 July 2007 |
Dojima Hotel
(Osaka) |
|
| Formerly the "Art in Caso" fair held by Osaka Bay, this event has moved to a very different venue, a hotel in downtown Osaka. With each guest room functioning as a separate gallery, it resembles the Art@Agnes fair at Tokyo's Agnes Hotel. Designed to reflect new concepts in hotel design, the rooms feature the work of artists supported by 26 contemporary art galleries in Osaka, Kyoto, Tokyo, Nagoya, Shikoku and Korea. |
|
|
|
| Kaoru Hirano |
| 5 - 28 July 2007 |
SCAIxSCAI
(Tokyo) |
|
| Hirano creates deceptively delicate installations of string and thread, often unraveled from old garments. She attracted attention in 2006 with her site-specific installation "Arrangement" at L'Institute Franco-Japonais in Tokyo and her participation in the "Forms of Thread and Cloth" exhibition at Yokohama Civic Art Gallery. |
|
|
|
| Will Rogan and Yuki Okumura: everyday |
| 13 July - 11 August 2007 |
Misako & Rosen
(Tokyo) |
|
| The second in a series of two-person shows at this gallery, "everyday" features photo and film works by San Francisco-based Rogan, whose work appeared in the recent "All About Laughter" exhibition at the Mori Art Museum, and Tokyo-based Okumura, who also writes art criticism. Both artists produce whimsical works that look for the unexpected in the quotidian. |
|
|
|
| Nishi Tatzu |
| 11 July - 24 September 2007 |
Mori Art Museum
(Tokyo) |
|
| Nishi Tatzu (Tatsu Nishino) moved to Germany in 1987 and studied sculpture at the Kunstakademie Muenster; he now lives and works in Cologne. Known for the wacky humor of his installations, Nishi plays with the distinction between public and private space, for example by building residential structures around streetlamps, monuments and other permanent outdoor objects, or converting a freight container into a café and suspending it from a crane. |
|
|
|
| Art Mirai International Art Exhibition |
| 27 June - 9 July 2007 |
National Art Center, Tokyo
(Tokyo) |
|
| Covering not only painting (Western, Japanese, watercolors, sumi-e, and woodblock prints) but also sculpture, ceramics, and industrial art, this show encourages entries by artists from all over. Its stated purpose is to "positively promote creativity and original art activities, and to contribute to international cultural exchange and the progress of art in the future." |
|
|
|
|
|
